9.1.1 Lesson 9 - EngageNY · conclude the lesson, students complete the Stage 3 portion of the...

NYS Common Core ELA & Literacy Curriculum Grade 9 • Module 1 • Unit 1 • Lesson 9

File: 9.1.1 Lesson 9, v2 Date: 8/31/14 Classroom Use: Starting 9/2014

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9.1.1 Lesson 9

Introduction

In this lesson, students read and analyze pages 237–240 (from “It was during Stage 3 that we met our

first purebred girls” to “But you could tell that they were pleased”), in which the pack plays checkers

with purebred girls and attends chapel, and the nuns announce the Debutante Ball. Students participate

in discussions to analyze how Russell refines the ideas of human identity versus wolf identification and

introduces a new central idea of beauty, in both wolf and human culture. Student learning is assessed

via a Quick Write at the end of the lesson: How does Russell develop a central idea in this excerpt? To

conclude the lesson, students complete the Stage 3 portion of the Epigraph Effect Tool, reviewing the

relationship between the events of the story and the language of the epigraph.

For homework, students review the whole text and all tools, notes, and annotations as they prepare for

the Mid-Unit Assessment. In addition, the students continue reading their Accountable Independent

Reading (AIR) text through the lens of focus standard RL.9-10.2 or RI.9-10.2 and prepare for a brief

discussion of their text based on that standard.

Standards

Assessed Standard(s)

RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over

the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific

details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Addressed Standard(s)

SL.9-10.1.c Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one,

in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and

issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current

discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the

discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.

L.9-10.4.a, b Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and

phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of







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strategies.

a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word's

position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

b. Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different

meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate,

advocacy).

Assessment

Assessment(s)

Student learning is assessed via a Quick Write. Students respond to the following prompt, citing

textual evidence to support analysis and inferences drawn from the text.

How does Russell develop a central idea in this excerpt?

High Performance Response(s)

A High Performance Response should:

Identify a central idea in the passage (e.g., beauty is universal; human identity versus wolf

identification).

Explain how Russell develops a central idea (e.g., The passage presents the central idea that

beauty is universal. For example, both humans and wolves appreciate the beauty of music, which

Claudette describes as a way “to pattern the old hunger into arias” (p. 239). Claudette says that

the girls “understood that [the chapel] was the humans’ moon, the place for howling beyond

purpose … not for anything but the sound itself,” showing that the humans and the wolf-girls both

value music for “itself,” not for its usefulness (p. 240). In the chapel, where the girls sing, they

appreciate the beauty of music in the same way that they understood the beauty of the howling

that they did for no other reason than to hear it).

Vocabulary

Vocabulary to provide directly (will not include extended instruction)

ferocity (n.) – savage fierceness

meekly (adv.) – humbly patient; overly submissive

complied (v.) – did what had been asked or ordered

arias (n.) – songs in an opera







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oculus (n.) – circular or oval window

nave (n.) – the main part of the interior of a church

conjure (v.) – bring to mind; recall

rudimentary (adj.) – very imperfectly developed

inducement (n.) – incentive

debutante (n.) – young upper-class woman who has begun going to special parties where she will

meet and be seen by other people from the upper class

sophisticate (n.) – a person who has a lot of knowledge about the world and about culture, art,

literature, etc.

Vocabulary to teach (may include direct word work and/or questions)

captivity (n.) – the state of being kept within bounds; confined

purebred (adj.) – having parents of the same breed

Additional vocabulary to support English Language Learners (to provide directly)

volunteer (n.) – person who does something without being forced to do it

moon (n.) – large round object that circles the earth and that shines at night by reflecting light

from the sun

bicycle (n.) – a wheeled vehicle that a person rides by pushing on foot pedals

dance (v.) – move one’s body in a way that goes with the rhythm and style of music that is being

played

dance (n.) – a social event at which people dance

Lesson Agenda/Overview

Student-Facing Agenda % of Lesson

Standards & Text:

Standards: RL.9-10.2, SL.9-10.1.c, L.9-10.4.a, b

Text: “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, pp. 237–

240

Learning Sequence:

1. Introduction of Lesson Agenda

2. Homework Accountability

3. Reading and Discussion

1. 10%

2. 10%

3. 55%







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4. Quick Write

5. Epigraph Effect Tool

6. Closing

4. 10%

5. 10%

6. 5%

Materials

Student copies of the 9.1 Common Core Learning Standards Tool (refer to 9.1.1 Lesson 1)

Student copies of the Central Ideas Tracking Tool (refer to 9.1.1 Lesson 5)—students may need

additional blank copies

Student copies of the Short Response Rubric and Checklist (refer to 9.1.1 Lesson 1)

Student copies of the Epigraph Effect Tool (refer to 9.1.1 Lesson 5)—students may need additional

blank copies

Learning Sequence

How to Use the Learning Sequence

Symbol Type of Text & Interpretation of the Symbol

10% Percentage indicates the percentage of lesson time each activity should take.

no symbol

Plain text indicates teacher action.

Bold text indicates questions for the teacher to ask students.

Italicized text indicates a vocabulary word.

Indicates student action(s).

Indicates possible student response(s) to teacher questions.

Indicates instructional notes for the teacher.

Activity 1: Introduction of Lesson Agenda 10%

Begin by reviewing the agenda and the assessed standard for this lesson: RL.9-10.2.In this lesson, students read and annotate a section of text before participating in a discussion that focuses on how Russell develops central ideas in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” Students respond to a Quick Write prompt about a central ideas in this excerpt and then complete the Stage 3 portion of the Epigraph Effect Tool.

Students look at the agenda.

Instruct students to take out their copies of the 9.1 Common Core Learning Standards Tool. Inform students that in this lesson they begin to work with a new substandard: L.9-10.4.b. Ask students to







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individually read substandard L.9-10.4.b on their tools and assess their familiarity with and mastery of this substandard.

Students read and assess their familiarity with substandard L.9-10.4.b.

Instruct students to talk in pairs about what they think the substandard means. Lead a brief discussion about this standard.

This substandard asks students to look at word patterns and parts to help find the meaning of

new words.

Activity 2: Homework Accountability 10%

Instruct student pairs to share their responses to the previous lesson’s homework. (Write a paragraph in response to the following prompt: What does Mirabella’s character development suggest about her identity?)

Student pairs share homework responses.

Student responses may include:

o Descriptions of Mirabella’s behaviors make her seem more like a wolf than a girl, showing

that she is not able to establish a human identity and still has a strong wolf identification. At

first, she “flatten[s] her ears to the side of her head” and “snarl[s] in the most menacing

register that an eight-year-old wolf-girl can muster” (p. 228–229). Later, she “rip[s] foamy

chunks out of the church pews and replace[s] them with ham bones” and “wag[s] her

invisible tail” (p. 230), two behaviors that are associated more with wolves than with

humans. She “cock[s] her ears,” as a wolf would, when the other girls try to correct her and

is “still loping around on all fours” when the other girls are learning to walk on two feet (p.

231). During Stage 2, Mirabella doesn’t “even try to curb her desire to kill things” and thinks

Claudette is playing a game when she tries to run away from Mirabella instead of going to

the duck pond with her. Again, Mirabella behaves like a wolf rather than a girl. She

continues to communicate like a wolf, too, using “the old word for tug-of-war” when she

wants to play with Claudette and making “a high, whining noise through her nostrils,” as a

wolf would, when she wants Claudette to help her. Mirabella has only a wolf identity and

cannot seem to create a human identity for herself.

o The description of Mirabella’s physical appearance presents her as someone who is

suffering as a result of the mismatch between her strong wolf identification and her weak

human identity. Claudette says, “Mirabella’s inability to adapt was taking a visible toll” and

goes on to describe her as having “teeth [that] were ground down to nubbins; her hair was

falling out” (p. 236), suggesting that her emotional distress leads to physical symptoms. She







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explains that Mirabella hated the cooked, human food that the nuns served, so she would

not eat and “her ribs were poking through her uniform,” showing that Mirabella’s dislike of

human food is so strong that she is starving instead of learning to eat what humans eat (p.

236). Mirabella’s inability to develop a human identity or to continue successfully with her

wolf identification causes her to suffer both emotionally and physically.

Instruct students to talk in pairs about how they applied a focus standard, RL.9-10.2 or RI.9-10.2, to their AIR texts. Lead a brief share out on the previous lesson’s AIR homework assignment. Select several students (or student pairs) to explain how they applied a focus standard to their AIR texts.

Students (or student pairs) discuss and share how they applied a focus standard to their AIR

texts from the previous lesson’s homework.

Activity 3: Reading and Discussion 55%

Instruct students to form pairs. Instruct student pairs to read pages 237–240 (from “It was during Stage 3 that we met our first purebred girls” to “But you could tell that they were pleased”) and annotate the text. Remind students to mark the text with the four annotation codes introduced in 9.1.1 Lesson 4, as well as CD for character development and CI for central ideas.

If necessary to support comprehension and fluency, consider using a masterful reading of the focus

excerpt for the lesson.

Differentiation Consideration: Consider posting or projecting the following guiding question to

support students in their reading throughout this lesson:

What are the central ideas in this excerpt?

Students read and annotate text.

Student annotations may include:

o Boxes around ferocity, meekly, complied, arias, oculus, nave, conjure, rudimentary,

inducement, debutante, sophisticate, captivity, purebred, volunteer, moon, bicycle, and

dance.

o Star (*) near

“’The lake-water was reinventing the forest and the white moon above it, and wolves

lapped up the cold reflection of the sky.’” (p. 239)

“Long before we could understand what the priest was saying, the music instructed us

how to feel.” (p. 239)







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“We understood that this was the humans’ moon, the place for howling beyond

purpose,” as evidence that both humans and wolves appreciate beauty for its own sake

rather than for its usefulness (pp. 239–240).

o CI near

“There were so many things that we could do wrong!”

(p. 237) (human identity vs. wolf identification)

“I felt sorry for them. I wondered what it would be like to be bred in captivity, and

always homesick for a dimly sensed forest” (p. 237). (human identity vs. wolf

identification)

“Being human is like riding this bicycle.” (p. 238) (human identity vs. wolf identification)

“The brothers! We’d almost forgotten about them” (p. 238). (human identity vs. wolf

identification)

o CD near

“Jeanette was learning how to dance” as evidence that Jeanette is continuing to develop

her human identity (p. 237) – Jeanette

“Mirabella would run after the bicycles, growling out our old names” (p. 238) –

Mirabella

“I should have been excited; instead, I felt a low mad anger at the nuns” (p. 238) –

Claudette

“[Jeanette] was the first of us to sign for her library card, too” (p. 238–239) – Jeanette

“Jeanette blew her nose into a nearby curtain” (p. 239) – Jeanette

o Question mark (?) near

“I wasn’t ready to claim a common language with Jeanette” (p. 239)

“On Sundays, the pretending felt almost as natural as nature” (p. 239)

“She showed us how to pattern the old hunger into arias” (p. 239)

“A black shadow, running behind the watery screen of pines” (p. 239)

o Exclamation mark (!) near

“always homesick for a dimly sensed forest, the trees you’ve never seen” (p. 237)

“Jeanette was learning how to dance” (p. 237)

“We pedaled faster” (p. 238)

“Things had been so much simpler in the woods” (p. 238)

“Mouth shut—shoes on feet! Mouth shut—shoes on feet! Mouthshutmouthshut” (p.

238)

“She was the first of us to sign for her library card, too” (pp. 238–239)

“The lake-water was reinventing the forest and the white moon above it, and wolves

lapped up the cold reflection of the sky” (p. 239)







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Post or project the questions below for students to discuss. Instruct students to continue to annotate the text as they read and discuss, using the codes CI and CD as appropriate. Also remind students that they should keep track of central ideas in the text using the Central Ideas Tracking Tool.

Instruct student pairs to read pages 237–238 (from “It was during Stage 3 that we met our first purebred girls” to “Mouth shut—shoes on feet! Mouth shut—shoes on feet! Mouthshutmouthshut”), and answer the following questions before sharing out with the class.

Provide students with the following definitions: ferocity means “savage fierceness,” meekly means “humbly patient; overly submissive,” complied means “did what had been asked or ordered,” rudimentary means “very imperfectly developed,” inducement means “incentive,” debutante means “a young upper-class woman who has begun going to special parties where she will meet and be seen by other people from the upper class,” and sophisticate means “a person who has a lot of knowledge about the world and about culture, art, literature, etc.”

Students may be familiar with some of these words. Consider asking students to volunteer

definitions before providing them to the class.

Students write the definitions of ferocity, meekly, complied, rudimentary, inducement,

debutante, and sophisticate on their copies of the text or in a vocabulary journal.

Differentiation Consideration: Consider providing the following definitions: volunteer means

“person who does something without being forced to do it,” moon means “large round object that

circles the earth and that shines at night by reflecting light from the sun,” bicycle means “a wheeled

vehicle that a person rides by pushing on foot pedals,” dance (v.) means “move one’s body in a way

that goes with the rhythm and style of music that is being played,” and dance (n.) means “a social

event at which people dance.”

Students write the definitions of volunteer, moon, bicycle, and dance on their copies of the text

or in a vocabulary journal.

How do the interactions between the purebred girls and the wolf-girls on page 237 develop a central

idea of the story? Use textual evidence to support your response.

The interactions develop the central idea of human identity versus wolf identification.

Student responses may also include:

o The interactions between the purebred girls and wolf-girls highlight the differences between

the two cultures and show how difficult it is for the wolf-girls to identify themselves as part

of human society. For example, the purebred girls come to St. Lucy’s as volunteers to “tutor

[the girls from St. Lucy’s] in playing” (p. 237), showing that the girls have not yet mastered

basic human games. They also make mistakes on purpose in order to give “[the girls from St.

Lucy’s] an advantage” (page 237). Some of the wolf-girls do not understand human







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interactions designed to make others feel better. For example, Lavash says, “These girl-girls

sure is dumb” when she keeps winning at checkers, not realizing that the purebred girls are

allowing the wolf-girls to win (p. 237).

o It makes the girls from St. Lucy’s “nervous to meet new humans” because there are “so

many things that [they] could do wrong” (p. 237). This shows that the wolf-girls are not

confident about their ability to function in human society yet.

o Claudette feels “sorry” for the purebred girls and wonders “what it would be like to be bred

in captivity, and always homesick for a dimly sensed forest, the trees you’ve never seen” (p.

237), showing that she still feels a strong connection to her own wolf culture and has more

of a wolf identification than a human identity at this point.

Differentiation Consideration: Consider posing the following scaffolding question:

How does the phrase “always homesick for a dimly sensed forest, the trees you’ve never seen”

help clarify the meaning of the word “captivity”?

The girls who were raised in captivity have never seen the trees of the forest, so they are clearly

not wild; they have been raised by people.

Consider drawing students’ attention to their application of standard L.9-10.4.a through using

context to make meaning of a word.

Why do the nuns “congratulate” the girls on learning to ride bicycles?

The nuns see riding a bicycle as part of “being human” (p. 238). Riding a bicycle is a human

activity and it represents being part of human society. Once the girls learn to “be human,” they

will “never forget,” just as once they learn to ride a bicycle they will never forget: “Being human

is like riding this bicycle. Once you’ve learned how, you’ll never forget” (p.238).

What is the impact of the statement “We pedaled faster”?

The statement “We pedaled faster” shows that Mirabella, who has not learned to ride a bike,

and can only “run after the bicycles, growling out [the girls’] old names” is being increasingly

excluded from the pack. The pack is leaving Mirabella behind, both literally, as the girls ride

away, and figuratively, as the other girls become more and more comfortable with human

culture (p. 238).

Why does Claudette feel “a low mad anger at the nuns” when they announce the dance?


o Claudette feels “a low mad anger at the nuns” because she says the nuns “knew we weren’t

ready to dance with the brothers; we weren’t even ready to talk to them” (p. 238), showing







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that Claudette does not feel she has the social skill needed for human interactions.

Claudette’s anxiety about the dance is clear when she begins to practice in secret and

repeats to herself, “Mouth shut—shoes on feet! Mouth shut—shoes on feet!

Mouthshutmouthshut” (p. 238).

o Claudette feels that “Things had been so much simpler in the woods,” showing that she still

misses her old life and resents the nuns for making things more complicated (p. 238).

Lead a brief whole-class discussion of student responses.

Instruct student pairs to read pages 238–240 (from “One night I came back early from the closet” to “But you could tell that they were pleased”) and answer the following questions before sharing out with the class.

Provide students with the following definitions: arias means “songs in an opera,” oculus means “circular or oval window,” nave means “the main part of the interior of a church,” and conjure means “bring to mind; recall.”

Students may be familiar with some of these words. Consider asking students to volunteer

definitions before providing them to the class.

Students write the definitions of arias, oculus, nave, and conjure on their copies of the text or in

a vocabulary journal.

How does Claudette’s description of Jeanette’s activities on page 238–239 (from “She was sitting in a

patch of moonlight” to “I wasn’t ready to claim a common language with Jeanette”) develop a central

idea in the text?

Student responses should include:

o The passage develops the central idea human identity versus wolf identification.

o The passage shows that Jeanette is still in transition from being wolf-like to human. Jeanette

is “reading from one of her library books” (p. 238) and crying, as a human would, because of

a beautiful line in the book, but she blows her nose on “a nearby curtain” because she has

not yet fully adapted to human culture (p. 239).

o Claudette reads the line in Jeannette’s book, but will not “claim a common language with

Jeanette” (p. 239) because she is unwilling to form a bond with Jeanette over the human

experience of reading and finding beauty in a text.

Differentiation Consideration: Consider posing the following scaffolding questions:

What is the “line in the book” that causes Jeanette to cry?







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Jeanette reads, “’The lake-water was reinventing the forest and the white moon above it, and

wolves lapped up the cold reflection of the sky.’” (p. 239)

How do the word choices in the line in Jeanette’s book impact the tone of the passage?

The author uses figurative language to personify the “lake-water” reflecting the trees, and

describing the wolves as drinking or lapping “up the cold reflection of the sky” (p. 239), creating

a sad tone.

What is “the old hunger” to which Claudette refers on p. 239?


o The hunger is a desire for living in nature and being part of a pack again. Claudette describes

how the “[c]louds moved behind the frosted oculus of the nave,” showing that she is

separated from nature now but still finds it beautiful (p. 239).

o The hunger is a desire for family and being with the wolf pack, her old family. Claudette

describes how the clouds remind her of her mother, saying, “The mother, I’d think,

struggling to conjure up a picture. A black shadow, running behind the watery screen of

pines” (p. 239).

Differentiation Consideration: If students struggle to answer this question, consider posing the

following scaffolding question:

Based on the meaning of “the old hunger,” what other words could replace pattern in this

sentence? Explain your response.

The girls are using their desires to be with the wolf pack and in nature (“the old hunger”) to

create songs and beauty (“arias”), so words such as create, form, develop, or make could replace

pattern.

Why does Claudette describe “the mother” as a “black shadow” on page 239?


o Claudette describes the mother as a “black shadow” because she is hidden from Claudette’s

view. The mother is “running behind the watery screen of pines,” so Claudette cannot see

her clearly through the trees .

o Claudette is “struggling to conjure up a picture” of her mother, meaning that her memory of

her mother is fading as she adapts to human life.

What relationship does Claudette establish between the chapel and the moon?







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Both are places “for howling beyond purpose. Not for mating, not for hunting, not for fighting,

not for anything but the sound itself” (p. 240). The music in the chapel and the wolves’ howling

both express the beauty that both humans and wolves appreciate for its own sake rather than

for its usefulness.

How do the words Jeanette reads (p. 239) relate to the girls’ “howling beyond purpose” (p. 240) at the

chapel?


o Both the words and the howling remind the girls of their old life. The words describe wolves

“lap[ping] up the cold reflection of the sky” (p. 239) as they drink from a moonlit forest lake.

The girls understand the chapel to be “the humans’ moon, the place for howling beyond

purpose … not for anything but the sound itself” (pp. 239–240), where humans sing just as

the wolves used to howl at the moon. The girls think of singing in the chapel as they think of

howling, as an activity “beyond purpose” (p. 240).

o The girls respond emotionally to both the words and the music. Jeanette “sniffle[s] and

point[s] to a line in her book” to show that she recognizes the beauty of the moonlit scene

(p.239). The music also has an emotional effect on the girls. Claudette says, “[t]he music

instructed us in how to feel” and says that the choir director “showed [them] how to pattern

the old hunger into arias” (p. 239). When the girls sing, they “howl along … hurling every

pitted thing within [them] at the stained glass,” meaning that they are expressing all of their

emotions (“every pitted thing within us”) in their music, singing so loudly that it as though

they are “hurling” the music “at the stained glass” (p. 240).

Differentiation Consideration: If students struggle, consider posing the following scaffolding

questions:

How does Claudette say that the chapel and the moon are similar?

Both are places “for howling beyond purpose,” meaning they are places to appreciate beauty for

its own sake rather than for any particular purpose, such as “mating … hunting … fighting” (p.

240).

How is howling at the moon different from other types of howling, according to Claudette?

It has no purpose other than “the sound itself” (p. 240), while other types of howling can be

used “for mating … hunting … fighting” (p. 240).

What new central idea emerges from the descriptions of language and music in this passage?

Student responses should include:







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o The central idea of beauty emerges in this passage.

o Claudette and Jeanette appreciate the beauty of the language in Jeanette’s book and of the

scene it describes, which is familiar to them because of their former lives.

o Both the wolf-girls and the humans appreciate the beauty of music in the chapel as

something “beyond purpose” (p. 240).


Activity 4: Quick Write 10%

Instruct students to respond briefly in writing to the following prompt:

How does Russell develop a central idea in this excerpt?

Instruct students to look at their annotations to find evidence. Ask students to use this lesson’s vocabulary wherever possible in their written responses. Also, remind students to use the Short Response Rubric and Checklist to guide their written responses.

Students listen and read the Quick Write prompt.

Display the prompt for students to see, or provide the prompt in hard copy.

Transition to the independent Quick Write.

Students independently answer the prompt, using evidence from the text.

See the High Performance Response at the beginning of this lesson.

Activity 5: Epigraph Effect Tool 10%

Instruct students to work in pairs to use the Epigraph Effect Tool to consider the relationship between the events of Stage 3 and the Stage 3 epigraph. Remind students to review their notes, annotations, and tracking tools related to “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves” to support their work.

Students work in pairs to complete the Stage 3 portion of the Epigraph Effect Tool.

See the Model Epigraph Effect Tool below for possible student response.








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Activity 6: Closing 5%

For homework, instruct students to review the text, the completed portions of the Epigraph Effect Tool, and all tools (including the Character Tracking Tool introduced in 9.1.1 Lesson 3 and the Central Ideas Tracking Tool introduced in 9.1.1 Lesson 5), notes, and annotations in preparation for the Mid-Unit Assessment. Review the Mid-Unit Assessment prompt:

Choose one epigraph. Analyze the relationship between that epigraph and the girls’ development in

that stage.

Also for homework, students should continue to read their AIR texts through the lens of focus standard

RL.9-10.2 or RI.9-10.2, and prepare for a 3–5 minute discussion of their texts based on that standard.

Homework

Review the text, the other completed portions of the Epigraph Tool, and all tools, notes, and

annotations to prepare for the Mid-Unit Assessment. Review the Mid-Unit Assessment prompt:

Choose one epigraph. Analyze the relationship between that epigraph and the girls’ development in

that stage.

Also, continue reading your Accountable Independent Reading text through the lens of standard RL.9-

10.2 or RI.9-10.2, and prepare for a 3–5 minute discussion of your text based on that standard.







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Model Central Ideas Tracking Tool

Name: Class: Date:

Directions: Identify the central ideas that you encounter throughout the text. Trace the development of those ideas by noting how the author introduces, develops, or refines these ideas in the texts. Cite textual evidence to support your work.

Text: “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell

Page / Paragraph #

Central Ideas Notes and Connections

p. 237

Human identity versus wolf

identification

“These were girls raised in captivity, volunteers from St.

Lucy’s School for Girls.” The sentence shows that the

“purebred girls” and the “wolf-girls” have different

backgrounds and attend different schools; they do not

have a shared culture, so the wolf-girls’ identification

as wolves is separate from a human identity.

Claudette says, “It made us nervous to meet new

humans. There were so many things that we could do

wrong!” This makes it clear that the girls do not yet feel

comfortable in human society and do not have strong

human identities.

Claudette says she “felt sorry for” the purebred girls

who had been “bred in captivity,” showing that

Claudette’s wolf identification determines how she

understands the purebred girls.

Claudette reports, “Jeanette was learning how to

dance,” suggesting she is developing a human identity

as she learns to participate more fully in human

society.

p. 238

Human identity versus wolf

identification

When the girls learn to ride bicycles, the nuns say,

“Congratulations! … Being human is like riding this

bicycle. Once you’ve learned how, you’ll never forget,”







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suggesting that this activity represents an important

step toward participating in human society.

Mirabella cannot ride a bicycle and has to “run after

the bicycles, growling out our old names” as the girls

pedal faster to get away, showing that Mirabella is

having trouble keeping up with the other girls both

figuratively (developing a human identity) and literally

(she cannot run as fast as the girls can pedal).

Claudette reports, “The nuns decided we needed an

inducement to dance,” suggesting that the nuns

recognize that the girls are not fully part of human

society yet and need some reason to leave their wolf

identifications behind and assume a human identity.

p. 239

Beauty as a universal element

of culture

Claudette and Jeanette cry at the description, written

by a human, of wolves in a forest: “’The lake-water was

reinventing the forest and the white moon above it,

and wolves lapped up the cold reflection of the sky.’”

Both the human author and the wolf-girls appreciate

the beauty of the scene and the language.

Claudette says, “Long before we could understand

what the priest was saying, the music instructed us in

how to feel,” showing that the wolf-girls understand

the beauty of music, a human art form.

pp. 239–240

Claudette describes the chapel as “the humans’ moon,

the place for howling beyond purpose,” showing

evidence that she recognizes that both humans and

wolves recognize the need for beauty just for its own

sake and not for any particular use.







17

Model Epigraph Effect Tool

Name: Class: Date:

Directions: Use this tool to organize your analysis of the effects created by Russell’s use of epigraphs. Use the first column to record which stage the epigraph describes, the second column to describe the effects the epigraph creates, and the third column to provide textual evidence of the effect.

Epigraph Effect Created (e.g. tension, mystery, surprise, humor)

Evidence

“Stage 3: It is common that students who start living in a new and different culture come to a point where they reject the host culture and withdraw into themselves. During this period, they make generalizations about the host culture and wonder how the people can live like they do. Your students may feel that their own culture’s lifestyle and customs are far superior to those of the host country.” (p. 235)

Humor: The language

Russell uses to describe

the purebred girls, whom

the wolf-girls pity, is

humorous.

The language used to

describe the dance is

humorous; the dance is

supposed to be an

“inducement” for the

girls to join human

culture.

The girls have “frilly-duvet

names like Felicity and Beulah”

(p. 237).

Lavash says, “These girl-girls

sure is dumb” (p. 237).

When the wolf-girls get

frustrated playing checkers

they “[shred] the board to

ribbons” (p. 237).

The dance is called a

“Debutante Ball,” suggesting

something very fancy, but the

wolf-girls and boys are very

awkward (p. 238).

The name of the newspaper is

the Gazette Sophisticate, but

the setting is not very

sophisticated (p. 238).

The name of the nearby town is

“West Toowoomba” (p. 238).

Surprise: Russell

presents ordinary

activities from the

Claudette is confused by the

“many things that we could do

wrong” and all the different







18

perspective of someone

who has never

encountered them

before and they seem

very odd.

sorts of rules “depending on

which humans we were with”

(p. 237).

Checkers is described as “the

oblique, fussy movement from

square to square” (p. 237).

Riding a bicycle is described as

“sanctioned pumping” (p. 238).

The chapel is described as “the

humans’ moon, the place for

howling beyond purpose” (pp.

239–240).


9.1.1 Lesson 9 - EngageNY · conclude the lesson, students complete the Stage 3 portion of the...

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